History of air warfare – a 4 year olds view

[updated:LAST EDITED ON 03-04-02 AT 05:20 PM (GMT)]This is long and rambling, but it’s really tickled me and I had to share it with you.

Now, call me a brainwasher if you like, but my little lad was subjected to two aircraft related trips over the course of the Easter weekend; NX611’s first night taxi run of the year at East Kirkby on Saturday, and then a trip to Hendon on Monday, which was his first visit there.

As we all know, NX611 is owned by the Panton brothers, but as far as Haydn is concerned, she is HIS Lancaster. Presumably because we’ve been a few times, and we have a habit of standing between the rope and the NAAFI when she comes back in, and so she literally taxies right up to us, all four Merlins rumbling away as she gently rolls up and stops with her nose towering over us, before her pilot leans the mixtures and her four whirling props come to a stop. A truly awesome sight and sound for anyone, but especially for a four year old because he thinks she’s literally coming up and stopping just for him. No wonder he loves the aircraft so much!

And then a spur of the moment trip to Hendon on Monday, to show him another Lancaster, R5868, which he now calls “The Morning Lancaster” – well we already know NX611 as “The Night Lancaster”, so that’s child logic at work! 🙂

Hendon has certainly changed in the six months since I last went – the Coastal Command corner seems quite well laid out, especially as I could get a clear view of the Beaufighter from the Southampton’s viewing platform (but then any view of a Beau does it for me!). It’s obvious though that they still have some way to go before the final layout is completed; for example, the Hunter and Tempest looked odd in amongst the SE5A and Caudron.

Interesting to see Black 6 in her new home. I won’t go over old ground regarding the to fly or not to fly debate, but suffice to say that of the three halls at Hendon, the Bomber Command Hall – sorry, the ‘On Target!’ display – is the more appropriate, sharing it as she does with the He162 and Fw190, as examples of three of the fighters which the RAF and USAAF crews had to contend with over Germany during the bomber campaign. But I digress…

It was in here that Haydn started to grasp the concept of nationality markings; somehow I let slip that ‘the ones with crosses’ used to shoot at Lancasters. That, for a four year old Lancaster fan, is a cardinal sin, and so from that point on, he referred to all the aircraft in German markings as “Naughty ones”, because they were shooting at his beloved Lancasters. Now as we all know, Lancasters have roundels, and so all the aircraft with roundels became “Good ones”.

Then he saw the B17 and B25, which of course have the stars and bars. That confused him, until I explained that these were also “Good ones”.

“So the naughty one shoots the Lancaster, and then the good one with the star comes and shoots the naughty one with the cross? Is the good one with the star the Lancasters friend?”

Well that sounded pretty accurate to me, so I said yes, and so off we went round the rest of Hendon, through the Our Finest Hour exhibition accompanied by Haydn’s running commentary of “Look Dad, that’s a Spitfire, he’s a good one because he’s got a round thing. He shoots the Messerschmitt because that’s a naughty one with a cross. That scribbly one’s (pointing to the Me110 in night fighter camouflage) another naughty one with a cross, and there’s another naughty one, and… and… and…” Thankfully I managed to avoid having to explain the markings on the Italian CR42!

Finally, I got him home to Mum where he launched into an excited non-stop explanation of air warfare in the 20th century; full of good ones with round things and stars, and naughty ones with crosses. So, if anyone hears a little voice at Legends this year, running down the flightline walk pointing at the aircraft and yelling out “GOOD ONE WITH A STAR… GOOD ONE WITH A ROUND THING… ANOTHER GOOD ONE WITH A ROUND THING…!” …well, you’ll all know who’s responsible for it all! 🙂